I used to do a lot of eating when excited, too. I still sometimes get those urges when I have excited feelings, but they are a minor issue to me now. There is so much more reward in waiting until the next meal to enjoy my food.

Six years of maintaining a 20% weightloss and counting.*To seek happiness, identifying the Self with the body, is like trying to cross a river on the back of a crocodile." Ramana Maharshi *The No S Diet saved me from my emotional eating defeats. 8 years and counting! nosdiet.com/ *Get to the next meal hungry! www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/groups_individual.asp?gid=1323

thank you for sharing the article. i found the article and the sparkpeople responses to it very helpful. i found it interesting that in the article, emotional eating refers to the tendency to eat when one is experiencing what is referred to as negative emotions. part of my emotional eating relates to when i am very excited and uplifted. it is the feeling of overwhelm that is hard for me to endure, whether i am experiencing utter delight or despair. also, i would reframe the term "negative" emotions. sadness, anger, stress, etc., may indeed feel challenging, but they are not necessarily negative. to be still (not distracted) in my feelings, whatever those feelings may be, is always an opportunity for me to explore, learn, breathe mindfully, change patterns, or throw a temper tantrum! i do not always welcome those abundant opportunities, believe me, but reframing what is "comfort food" has been helpful. and as was mentioned, food PREP (especially, in my case, cutting fruits and veggies for a healthful meal) is a helpful way to satisfy a need to be around food in times when binging on unhealthful foods would have been my first choice. if i munch on bell peppers when i'm chopping them, i can forgive myself more easily for empowering food to comfort me. would i rather eat pizza or candy? you betcha! and sometimes i do make those less healthy choices, but with a little less frequency than in the past.

i have never posted publicly, but i have been on this team for about a year, and i am and have always been grateful to everyone for sharing their time, energy, wisdom, and support. you are all an inspiration to me, and i thank you.

American portions are much larger now than when I was a kid. Pull out a cookbook from the 50s and check portion size. When I first got married, sets of glasses were 4 oz, 8 oz and 12 oz. Now try to find 4 oz glasses for the actual portion size of orange juice. Dinner plates are larger, even coffee mugs. That two tablespoon measure of coffee is for a standard 6 oz cup (remember cups and saucers?), not the big mugs we use now. When I was a kid, no one ever ate anywhere except at a table. Now people expect to eat on the go. It's a different world, but that is the world we live in. I don't eat the way people expect; I don't eat between meals, I don't drink alcohol (though for my own reasons). I don't really care what people, restaurants or food marketers expect of me, that's what I do. 50 years ago, I would have been utterly normal. Today, I'm considered old fashioned. Go figure.

Nell Reston, Virginia (DC suburbs)

No one ever got up in the morning wishing she'd eaten more the night before.

Very true! And even the Italians, at least the ones I'm around, exercise portion control so that they don't overdo it. They eat all types of food, some healthy and some not, just in reasonable quantities and at set times of the day.

My name's Tina. I lost more than 90 pounds between March 2010 and March 2012 and have been keeping if off ever since. Had a baby at the end of April 2016 and am working to get back to my pre baby form, or at least as close to it as I realistically can!

I also think that looking forward to eating great food is another way to take comfort in it and enjoy it. Italians and the French are very good at loving food without actually eating it! they anticipate good meals, savor them, and celebrate them afterwards. I think that's a version of being comforted by food. That's has been an inspiration for me many times.

Six years of maintaining a 20% weightloss and counting.*To seek happiness, identifying the Self with the body, is like trying to cross a river on the back of a crocodile." Ramana Maharshi *The No S Diet saved me from my emotional eating defeats. 8 years and counting! nosdiet.com/ *Get to the next meal hungry! www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/groups_individual.asp?gid=1323

I have comforting food choices for sure, and over time they have shifted from things that cause me to feel bad the next day, to things that do comfort me (a great example is a slice of really good home made bread). Food that does not support my health in any way distracts me from my stresses and problems while creating a different stress. Not comforting at all actually.

I don't think there is anything wrong about using food or making food to find comfort. But if the is the only way to deal with negative emotions then it is giving food power and that is not good. I did like this article and it is an issue I am struggling with as I have headed into maintenance.

Sunny in Southern California PST

Remember that it is your own choice how you want to spend the rest of your life.

Don't stay down, every storm runs out of rain. Just like every night runs out of dark and turns into day.

That's a great way to reframe the idea of comfort. I think it fits in nicely with the article's points about asking yourself two very important questions: "Will eating this make me feel better now?" and "Will eating this make me feel better tomorrow?" In some cases, both answers might be 'yes' and the comfort is a positive type.

My name's Tina. I lost more than 90 pounds between March 2010 and March 2012 and have been keeping if off ever since. Had a baby at the end of April 2016 and am working to get back to my pre baby form, or at least as close to it as I realistically can!

Wait a minute. I comfort myself with food all the time, it's just different food in different quantities. And I use the food preparation time as part of the comfort, rather than just the eating. It's not an excision as much as a re-definition of what constitutes comfort.

Nell Reston, Virginia (DC suburbs)

No one ever got up in the morning wishing she'd eaten more the night before.

I'm with you, it's more of a habit now than an internal argument. But it took awhile to get there. In a 12 Step program, you call another person when the stress hits, even if it's a dozen times a day. Someone else can talk me out of or into something that I, by myself, cannot, even though I certainly know all the words. I am not a rock nor am I an island. So what? It works.

Nell Reston, Virginia (DC suburbs)

No one ever got up in the morning wishing she'd eaten more the night before.

Thanks for this! I realized I had often given up when the going got tough, too.

The article did not mention what has been the key for me in overcoming the worst of my emotional eating: having meals in routine eating windows, and learning to expect and even crave 1-2 hours of real hunger before those meals. Then, when the urge to eat -different from hunger-would come, and it would usually be long before I experienced real hunger, I would remind myself that I had eaten recently and would again in a few hours. It mattered less that I identified the emotion. Then I rode out the storm, as she suggest in step 2. But without that commitment to eating real, full, regular meals- not diet meals-, and to be hungry for them, which eliminated any excuse to nibble to stave off hunger, I don't think I could have resisted those strong urges to eat when I wasn't hungry. For years, I had tried examining my feelings, but when I felt bad, or even good sometimes, I still just ate. It has become habit just to stick to meals now, and all kinds of emotional reasons to eat are irrelevant. I often can't stop and soothe them when they're happening, such as at work, so I tolerate them, and that gets easier, too.

Happy eating to all!

Six years of maintaining a 20% weightloss and counting.*To seek happiness, identifying the Self with the body, is like trying to cross a river on the back of a crocodile." Ramana Maharshi *The No S Diet saved me from my emotional eating defeats. 8 years and counting! nosdiet.com/ *Get to the next meal hungry! www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/groups_individual.asp?gid=1323

Makes some interesting points about the physical and psychological connections that happen with emotional eating and underscores the importance of dealing with these issues in order to successfully manage our weight in the long term.

My name's Tina. I lost more than 90 pounds between March 2010 and March 2012 and have been keeping if off ever since. Had a baby at the end of April 2016 and am working to get back to my pre baby form, or at least as close to it as I realistically can!

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